Birthday Wishes
by merrybeary
Summary: Fore the Zombies, Write 2 challenge. Prompt: The time all the Runners worked together to prepare a special surprise for Sam's birthday. Kinda really Sam/Runner Five shippy.


**For the Zombies, Write 2 challenge on tumblr. I had a lot of fun writing for Dr. Austin and I really liked my prompt. If something doesn't quite make any sense, it's because I've been sick for a while and I had a hard time getting something that I liked. But I hope you enjoy it, I'd love to hear any feedback.**

**Prompt: The time all the Runners worked together to prepare a special surprise for Sam's birthday.**

* * *

Sam didn't often leave the comms shack in the middle of the day. But all his runners were in and he was feeling hungry. As he walked toward the tent everyone congregated to eat, he thought about how well the runners had been doing lately. They'd been bringing back some exceptional finds and even taking the fire truck out to retrieve some really good hauls.

Of course it had been Five's idea to start going through people's houses. It felt a bit like desecration and Sam was always worried the runner's would run into too many zombies that way. Mostly because he couldn't keep an eye out for them he supposed, and he never liked when Five went off camera. Not since that night when she was out all night.

Speaking of Five, Sam notices her talking with Simon. And of course the other runner is way too close to her for Sam's comfort. He tries not to think about why it bothers him so much. Simon flirts with everyone after all. He does take some solace in the fact that Five doesn't seem to be all that impressed with him, if the dead pan look on her face is anything to go by. When Simon ducks in and plants a kiss on Five's cheek, Sam's ears turn read and it takes him a moment to realize he's stopped dead in his tracks. But then even when Five pushes Simon back, the laughter he can hear coming from her does not set him at ease. She playfully shoves his face away and he saunters away with his shoulder's and hands raised like he doesn't know why she would say whatever it was she said to him.

She turns then and notices Sam, a bright smile lighting her face. She waves and walks over to him. "Hello Sam. Getting some lunch?" She asks conversationally, like nothing had even happened with Simon, and Sam can't bring himself to say anything about it. Or think about it. Too much.

"Five." He starts awkwardly, trying to smile back. "Ah, yeah. Just thought I'd come get something to eat since all you runners are inside right now." And now that he's thinking about it, he thinks he smells something really good cooking. "Do you smell, cake?" He asks with a quizzical lift of his brow.

Five makes a face and takes a big sniff of the air. "Hummm, nope. I don't smell any cake. But hey, before you go get anything to eat, can you come with me for a minute? I wanted to show you something." She says with a jerk of her head toward the comms shack. Ever since he'd demanded she come back to Abel and they'd find her some place to sleep, Janine and the Major had declared that since it was so important to Sam, then Five would bunk with him. It had been awkward at first, but Five kept out of the way most of the day and only coming back to sleep most of the time. If there was anything in their shared space to look at, then Sam was pretty sure that he'd probably seen it already. But that didn't stop him from nodding his head in agreement.

"Sure. I'm not all that hungry anyway. Just bored." He gives as excuses that sound lame in his ears. But Five just smiles and leads the way back to where he'd started. Following her into the shack he's a little surprised when she sits down at his operator chair.

"I was actually a sound engineer before all this. Not a lot of useful skills to use after the zoms took over. But I wanted to show you a few things that I thought might help since for some reason I'm the only one with a nonfunctional mic that I might be able to use to help communicate. If you don't mind that is." She says, powering up the equipment.

Sam's brows shoot up to his hairline in surprise. He's pretty sure that's the most personal thing he's ever heard her tell anyone and it takes him aback. He realizes she's looking at him with what he could swear is insecurity. "O-of course. Yeah. It's frustrating having to go off the camera's or radar when you're in the field." He crosses the small space to his desk and they spend quite a bit of time going over things and Sam's pretty sure this is the longest actual conversation they've ever had that wasn't interrupted by someone.

They do a bit of testing and Five goes outside to try out the measures they've been working on. It doesn't quite work as reliably as they were hoping, but it's something at least. When she comes back in the shack she sighs. "Well, we can work on that later. you must be starving by now. I know I'm getting hungry."

Sam had actually forgotten all about lunch. But now that it had been brought up his stomach growls so loudly that Five actually laughs. And though Sam is embarrassed, he's glad she's laughing and smiling. Means she's alive. Too many times now she'd almost died. "Yeah, maybe some food would be a good idea now." He says, and they make their way toward the tent used as a sort of cafeteria. When they get closer, he swears he can smell cake again, but doesn't say anything about it this time. They're quiet almost the whole walk, until right before they get to the tent and Five speaks up.

"I'm feeling lucky today. I'm sure there's going to be something special today." And all Sam can do is raise a brow at her and grin.

"Anything other than the same canned soup will be special at this point."

When they go inside, it's crowded. But not in the normal, food time crowd sort of way. As soon as Sam enters the tent, a big shout of "Happy Birthday!" Assaults him and he stands stunned as he looks around and sees all his runners smiling and shouting at him.

"Wh-what's all this then?" He asks, as a huge smile begins to spread over his face.

"Don't think we would forget the day our fearless operator was born." Simon yells over the heads of his fellows.

"You're the reason we're all here Sam. We wanted to do something special for you." Jody chimes in.

Fives takes him by the hand and pulls him over toward the tables and Sam finally spots what looks like a cake on the table with a few candles stuck in it.

"I knew I smelled cake." He comments, giving Five a look.

"What? I was supposed to admit to that? We all worked together, looking for everything we needed. Mostly while Amber was at the comms honestly. Even Chris helped make this happen by teaching us what to do when we encountered zombies where you couldn't see us or help. But Simon finally found the last thing we needed this morning, so we had to stall you until we could get it all made."

"What was the last thing?" Sam asks, looking over at Simon.

"Rock salt, mate."

Sam makes a weird face, not understanding what thy would need that for.

"Five said that you were really missing those little treats you could get. Cake rolls. So we made you a huge one." Jody says, positively beaming.

Sam stared at the cake, his mouth drooped open a little. "I, I had no idea you even..." Sam's voice cracked and Five nudges his arm a little.

"You saved my life that night. You've saved all our lives at one time or another. this was the least we could do to return the favor." She says. "Happy birthday Sam."

Sam has to blink back tears as he laughs a little. Jody is the first to break from the group to bound up to Sam and give him a big hug, but she's followed quickly by the rest of the runners and Sam can't remember a better birthday.


End file.
